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What this means is that your team MUST consist of 6 Pokemon with Items, Abilities, Natures, EV Spreads, and 4 Moves. It is also a very good idea to play test your team before you post your RMT.

In the event that you are posting a team for use in the Official Nintendo Random Wi-Fi Metagame, then you can post a team consist of three Pokemon, but you must state in your opening post what metagame this team will be used for.

In the event that you are posting a team for the Video Game Championships, then you can post a team consist of four Pokemon, but you must state in your opening post what metagame this team will be used for.

3. Your team must be formatted properly. You also need to explain IN DETAIL why you have chosen a certain Pokemon.

The better your post looks, the more likely you are to get a good rate. Also, before you post RMT thread, have some actual words to say instead of one line descriptions that give raters no information. Team Raters are not mind readers, in order for them to give you a proper rate they need to understand your thinking. For each Pokemon on your team, you need to explain why you selected it, its role, and what it helps you achieve. This should be a few sentences, single words are not allowed.All posts that don't meet these guidelines will not be approved for normal viewing.

Thunder Wave Jirachi, as a lead, has been successful for my team. The purpose of Jirachi is to get Stealth Rocks up, and once that's done, Pokemon such as Gyarados, Dragonite, or DD Babari Berry Tyranitar that switch in to try and set up on my lead are immediately rendered useless thanks to Thunder Wave. My game plan is to set up Stealth Rock first, and then Thunder Wave to scout my opponent's team/cripple any sweeper hoping to use Jirachi as set up bait. With Choice Scarf being popular on lead sets, I decided to take advantage of its popularity, and it has paid off in every game I have been in.

Jirachi has been EVed to top Lucario in speed and use Fire Punch, or at the very least stop him completely with Thunder Wave. Sometimes, getting a burn hax via Fire Punch helps, but as I can't KO Lucario with it, I tend to play it safe with T-Wave in most games. Either method is fine as Lucario remains crippled at the end of the day.

While not required, posting a nice picture of the Pokemon on your team makes it much easier to read, which also makes it easier to rate. However, any image of a Pokemon that is unreasonably large will get removed from the opening post. Re-adding it will net you an infraction. Don't post large images, especially ones that stretch the page.

5. Test your team before posting it.

Before posting your team, it's normally a good idea to test the team and see how it functions / plays before putting up for review. This way you can get a good idea of what kind of threats give you the most trouble. Posting a team that gets completely ravaged by any of the top 10 Pokemon is a clear indication that you never actually went through the testing phase.

6. Be open to advice.

This forum is more than just show and tell. By refusing to take any advice from raters, you are saying your team is perfect and doesn't need any improvements. Well, sorry to say no team is perfect, and your thread is pointless if you won't take any advice. Anyone caught ignoring most suggestions in their thread will get infracted and their thread locked. Of course, if someone posts bad advice, they will get dealt with.

7. State what rules you're playing under.

Serebii plays under Smogon's standard ruleset. However, if you're playing under a specific set of rules / restrictions, whether it be for another battling community or a tournament, then it's a good idea to state that in the first paragraph of your post so raters don't walk in and potentially look foolish in whatever rate they post.

8. Don't restrict yourself to one battling medium.

Wi-Fi is fun and all (well, used to be), but that isn't seen as a competitive environment, compared to simulator play such as Pokemon Online or Pokemon Showdown. Don't restrict yourself to Wi-Fi, instead, try playing on the simulators I mentioned and I guarantee you that it'll be a more competitive environment.

Failure to comply with these rules will get your thread locked. Continually breaking these rules will earn you a "Disobeying the Rules of a specific sub-forum" infraction.

If your thread is locked, you can have your thread unlocked providing you acknowledge the rules and PM a moderator with your thread changes. If they seem fine, the moderator will unlock your thread and edit in the changes to your first post. You can though repost your team with these changes but it is recommended to PM a moderator to see if anything else is wrong.

Before rating, read the entire first post and consider the point of the team.

Do not spam / make unhelpful post.

Do not post if you have little knowledge of competitive battling or the metagame.

Do not flame/troll.

Avoid making sweeping changes.

Avoid suggesting pointless gimmicks.

Try testing the team first.

1. Before rating, read the entire first post and consider the point of the team.

You will look like a fool if you rate or criticize something without first reading the thread creator’s reasoning for their choices. While not infractable unless repeatedly done, this will most likely damage your credibility as a rater. Make sure you know exactly why the thread maker chose a particular move set or Pokemon.

Additionally, consider the point of the team before rating, cause again, you will look like a fool if you suggest something that goes against the very point of the team. As an example, an offensive team does not need great defensive synergy to function well, as they are both two conflicting team types and having a defensive Pokemon effectively kills any momentum an offensive team manages to gain. On top of that, if a Pokemon handily punches holes into a Pokemon's team, but cannot find time to come in a set up, then it's not really a threat providing the player knows how to maintain effective offensive pressure. Note that a defensive Pokemon could also give this Pokemon a gateway to set up and handily punch holes into said team. ^_^

2. Do not post spam / make unhelpful posts.

Posts such as "this team is awesome, not much to say" or "once so and so die, you are weak to x threat" ARE NOT HELPFUL. If you're going to make a post like that, it wouldn't hurt to actually recommend Pokemon that actually deal with the threat you just mentioned. Saying "cool team" or whatever is just pure spam and has no relevance, don't do it unless you like seeing red.

When rating, if you suggest something, please explain why this Pokemon works better than any other Pokemon on the thread maker's team. It needs to patch a weakness on the opponent's team. It also needs to add an element to the team which is better for it in the long run, whether it be a strong wallbreaker / sweeper, or support Pokemon. Having an entire post suggestion Pokemon "just for the hell of it" is equally not as helpful and potentially damaging to the thread maker's team should he decide to use whatever you suggested. THERE NEEDS TO BE A SUITABLE REASON FOR WHY YOU ARE SUGGESTING THIS POKEMON.

3. If you are not knowledgeable in B/W Competitive Battling or the metagame, DO NOT RATE ANYTHING.

This is rather simple, if you have no knowledge of competitive battling / know grasp of the current metagame, you really have no business rating teams and giving advice. The last thing people want is bad advice which makes a team 10x worse than it already is. Giving out bad rates only hurts your credibility, and if caught you will be infracted.

Do NOT pretend to be an established battler/rater either, because you're probably not.

The forum has had an influx of people with little knowledge of competitive battling spreading bad advice and trying to prove themselves right with flawed, laughable logic or claimed damage calculations. From now on, these kind of garbage posts will be punished and monitored very strictly and with great vigilance, and the punishments will be handed out swiftly.

4. Do NOT Troll / Flame the thread maker and any other poster.

Nothing is more annoying than a troll who has nothing better to do than flame / troll the thread maker for whatever reason. From now on, people caught flaming and/or trolling will receive a Flaming / Insulting Others or a Trolling infraction. Continually doing this will get you banned. If you see someone trolling or flaming, report it. Reports go directly to our emails so we won't miss them.

***THINGS TO CONSIDER***

5. Avoid making sweeping changes (small changes first).

Before rating a team, rather than going straight for sweeping changes (like replacing 4 members of the team), think of small changes which could improve the performance of the team you're rating. These can be things such as simple EV changes, one Pokemon replacement or a moveset change. If you do make drastic changes from the start, then either you need to rethink your approach or the team is seriously beyond any help that such a sweeping change is required.

6. Avoid suggesting pointless gimmicks.

Tying in with what I said about reading the entire post before commenting, do not suggest "cool", or otherwise gimmicky sets which serve no purpose to the team (like patching a weakness). Suggest something that helps the team function better, not something that is "cool", as that kind of rate will open the team up to more weaknesses.

7. Try testing the team.

Testing the team you're about to rate is not required, but could be beneficial as you can catch weaknesses that might not have been mentioned in the thread. Practice is always better than theorymon, and it can strengthen your rate.

Failure to comply with these rules will earn you infraction points/warnings.